Just Developed Lockjaw (Trismus) Yesterday, After Years of Jaw Popping & A Week of Ear Canal Pain (x-ray, infection)

[shyguylh]

Yesterday morning, I woke up and to my surprise I could barely open my mouth due to stiffness on the left side of my jaw. I could not open it enough to yawn or to pop my ears. As of this moment, with respect to the size of the opening, I can get in there enough to brush my teeth and talk normally, but if I sing along to songs aggressively (think Aerosmith when Steven Tyler is really getting into it), it can be hard and painful.

As for eating, that is the real hard one--I can do so, but now things like a Whopper are practically out of the question. Yawning isn't quite as bad today, day 2, and I have been able, with some success anyway, to pop my ears, almost all of that has been restricted to the LEFT side, though (weird, since that's the side that hurts). However, I can't open it enough to, say, hold a smaller flashlight or screwdriver in my mouth, or use my mouth to force open a 2 liter of soda that needs help opening, my mouth's opening is too small to do that without a LOT of stretching and resulting pain. Also, that side of my face tends to hurt even when I'm NOT performing any mouth movements, it's just flat-out sore on that side period, in a manner similar to that of a strained muscle, or at least that's how it seems anyway.

Here is some historical background that may help.

For nearly a week prior to that, I had been dealing with a sore ear canal in the same area, that is, the left-hand side. In other words, my LEFT ear canal is the one that was sore, and it's now my left jaw that has locked. At the same time, my ear canal isn't sore anymore, and in fact the pain had been lessening the prior 2-3 days. Earlier, it had been so sore that I could hardly even lay on that side of my head while sleeping, and I would sometimes feel pain on that side during the day, by the time the lockjaw happened, that had stopped.

Also, this--the jawbone on the left side of my face has "popped" or "clicked" for a long time, I'd say for at least 5 years or perhaps 10. Often-times at the top part of it (where it connects to my skull) it may even protrude outwardly a bit. There have been occasions where, during yawning or such, it would pop and on occasion even almost lock open completely to where I'd have to sort of force it out of locking position, with resulting temporary pain. This jaw, almost always, would click or "pop" as I was eating, especially if I was really getting down with something like the afermentioned Whopper. It would do so loud enough that my wife could hear it if she was eating with me at the time and the atmosphere wasn't noisy. It has been doing this for at least 5 years, maybe more like 10.

That jaw, as of now, pops almost none at all--some, but far less than before. The same goes for it sticking out at the skull connection point. I don't know if anything has changed or if that's simply a by-product of my mouth not opening as widely while this is going on. I will say that, about 2 days prior to this, there was an episode where I sneezed really hard and in the process I jerked my head violently and that jawbone popped. However, nothing came of it at that point.

I don't know if it's related, but I often link the jaw popping/clicking aspect to an episode many years as a child involving a trip to the dentist who, open becoming irritated at me (at least that's how it appeared to me at the time) for my not keeping my mouth open, as he had to repeatedly remind me to keep it open, simply took a ratchet device of some sort to that side of my mouth to FORCE it open and to stay there.

The jaw popping/clicking never caused me any pain or such, though, except for the occasional time when it would temporarily lock OPEN as I was yawning or such, that was it. It otherwise, noise aside, never gave me any trouble.

I do realize that ultimately I will probably need to have this checked out if the pain doesn't go away. What worries me is that I fear a dentist is who I will need to see, and my funds are VERY limited, and they are SO expensive, and unlike other doctor or emergency room situations, they almost NEVER will see you unless you can pay right there on the spot, to the tune of the hundreds of dollars such a visit is apt to cost me. I have no qualms, in general anyway, with paying people for a service, but I just don't have $400-500 or so to part with, it's just not there, yet unless this goes away on its own eventually, how can I not do something?

I have read that there are warm compress treatments you can do at home. What else? Would a visit to a chiropractor help? Could they simply re-align the jaw, if it got misaligned? (I theorize that's why it's not clicking anymore, but again that may be due to that it's not opening as widely and thus perhaps not triggering the popping/clicking.) At what point would this now be considered no longer temporary but now something permanent until it's treated? Could this simply be the "chickens coming home to roost" from my jaw popping/clicking all of these years? At the same time, it's a heck of a coincidence that this happened right as my ear canal pain was abating.

[kronenborg]

you should see a doctor/and or dentist. there are many causes of trismus, some related to the temporomandibular joint, some related to dental problems, and some related to problems elsewhere. at the very least, it would probably be advisable to have an x-ray of your TMJ.

on a purely semantic level, the term "lockjaw" is generally associated symptoms resulting from infection with clostridium tetani, which is incredibly rare in the US.

[Dragonmam]

I'd start on a soft food only diet and take an anti-inflammatory (like Motrin or Advil) for a few days, see if that helps. Eat nothing harder than a grilled cheese and cut everything into tiny little bites. You may actually have to avoid soup and ice cream if you cannot comfortably open your mouth to get the spoon in. Don't force your jaw to open past even the slightest pain and stifle a yawn as best you can. You need to rest the jaw. Talk as little as possible and no singing like Steven Tyler. And, do not use your mouth to open soda bottles or hold tools; it puts way to much pressure on the joint.

An ice pack on the jaw for 20 minutes every few hours and heat on the neck might help. The neck muscles may be tensing up and part of all of this.

A dentist or a doctor might prescribe a stronger anti-inflammatory or add a muscle relaxer. Regardless, I would definitely see a dentist soon, so you can figure out what is causing this, what your treatment options are and what kind of money will be involved.